By the day of the wedding, I reckon I was some excited. All the benches was set up in the north meadow and folks were comin' from every direction. All our neighbors and folks I knew from them comin' to our Sunday afternoon picnics, folks I'd come to know from goin' with Daddy to Amarillo and folks I'd come to know from them comin' to the Bent-Y for doin' business with our daddy or our Uncles, they was all there. There was folks who I knew went to Aunt Lydia's and Aunt Jenny's church. Even Brother Freeman was there and he wasn't even gonna do the marryin'. Besides them folks I knew, there was a lot of folks I never seen before. I reckon they knew our daddy from him all the time goin' to Austin or Amarillo or Santa Fe and places like that. Daddy had several buckboards runnin' back and forth from Groom bringin' folks who come on the train from Austin and places like that.
Whenever you see Grandma Walton comin', you know what's gonna happen. She don't hardly smother you no more because I got too tall for her to be pushin' my face in them things on her chest but you know she's gonna do some hard huggin' and some real wet kissin'. You get used to it, though and after while it don't seem like nothin'.
Little Jasper tried to climb up Paco's legs and turn a somersault by havin' Paco hold his hands and runnin' his feet up his legs. Paco does that all the time but he didn't want no dirt or whatever kind of shit Little Jasper might have on his boots on them fancy gray britches. He wouldn't let Little Jasper do his climbin' thing. It made Little Jasper mad. Him and Paco was good friends and Little Jasper couldn't think why Paco wasn't playin' with him. He said, "Damn lucky my mama's here. Otherwise, I'd kick your ass."
Cil gave Little Jasper a swat on the seat for cussin' and Little Jasper turned around and said to Paco, "I'll get you for that, too."
Cil rolled her eyes like she was sayin', "Lord, what am I gonna do with this boy?"
Little Jasper ain't but six but he thinks he's twenty. Him talkin' so big made me and Paco laugh and that made him more mad. He's feisty. Some like Danny but by the next time he sees Paco he'll have forgot all about his mad. He thinks on Paco like Paco was his big brother - almost like he was God, I reckon.
I don't know which one was which but I know the Governor of Texas and the Territorial Governor of New Mexico was there. There was a lot of other real fancy folks there too but I don't know who they was.
The Feldmans come and me and Paco was really glad to see Richie and Eddie but we couldn't play none. We already had on them fancy gray suits Mama bought us in Amarillo and we was told by Aunt Lydia that she'd skin' us alive did we get them messed up before the weddin'. When we seen them boys, we couldn't do nothin' but smile and tell them we'd play later.
About the time I figured that everybody west of the Mississippi was there, here come them Indians, about fifteen of them, ridin' across the east range toward our house. Spud seen them comin' first and I thought he was gonna do a Nate right in his fancy go-to-meetin' britches. I don't think he put a spot on the front of his britches but he was sure excited or scared, one. I still don't know him good enough to know for sure what it is he's thinkin'.
Qua had grown some. He was dressed up in them fancy Indian buckskins that was all feathers and beads. He looked fine but his daddy looked even finer. He had one of them Indians hats with the feathers that came way down his back. Daddy told me later that those kind of hats was mostly Sioux but Qua's daddy liked them fancy hats and one of his Sioux friends give him that hat. Them Indians wasn't fightin' each other no more. There wasn't no need to just be Comanche or Sioux or whatever. All them Indians was just Indians and they was in the same boat. It was all of them against the white man and them tribes didn't mean much to them no more. If it was Indian and they liked it, they wore it.
Even though everybody is the same important to our daddy, he had special places for some of them real fancy folks. He said as folks, they wasn't no better than any dust eatin' cowboy but you had to respect their position. There was a place right up in the front for them Governors. Daddy put Qua's daddy and him and his mama right up there with them Governors.
That weddin' day was the first time I ever saw a cowboy herdin' somethin' beside cows or horses. All the Bent-Y hands that wasn't needed to keep cattle from strayin' was at the main houses: showin' folks which way to go, takin' care of horses and even helpin' fix food. Daddy had even hired some folks from places like Claude and Amarillo to help out and Aunt Lydia looked like she was havin' the most fun in the world. She was bossin' everybody.
Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about Aunt Lydia. Besides our mama, I probably love her more than any of them other ladies on the Bent-Y. In a lot of ways, she's like our daddy. She's a get-down-to-business, no beatin'-around- the-bush kind of lady. She knows how to get things done. When you got a big doin's like that, somebody's got to be in charge and Aunt Lydia could be in charge the best of any lady I knew. Even if she was bossin' everybody, she did it in a funnin' way and you didn't know you was bein' bossed. She's fun and lovin' and most folks like her a lot but she ain't the kind who can stand around decidin' and worryin' about hurtin' someone else's feelings. She just ain't one for decidin'. She's one for doin'.
Before our mama came, Aunt Lydia was mostly the only lady huggin' we got and I got to tell you somethin'. There's something different about lady huggin'. They're softer and they smell different and they do a lot things different from a man. I can't say what's the cause of it, but, do we get hurt, like a cut or somethin' like that, we go to Aunt Lydia instead of Daddy. I don't reckon me and Paco are babies but ladies fuss over you more when you're hurt and we like that. Even though we got our own mama now, me and Paco will probably still be goin' over for that Aunt Lydia huggin' some.
Me and Paco know that Aunt Jenny loves us but she's more like Spike. She's some shy. You don't hardly see her huggin' her own younguns but I'm sure she does. She's a good mama and she loves her children and, I reckon, she loves me and Paco but you don't go around huggin' on folks in public when you're shy. I reckon Juan's mama loves us too but she don't hug on us none either. I reckon her arms are plumb wore out from huggin' all them younguns she's got of her own.
There I went down that river again. How did I get from talkin' about weddin's to talkin' on ladies and huggin'? Anyway, Aunt Lydia had a lot to keep her eye on. Me and Paco never seen anything like all that food fixin'. Clay Brown from the Continental in Amarillo was kind of bossin' some of the food makin' part. Of course, Ho Boy was bossin' Clay and Aunt Lydia was bossin' Ho Boy but if some of them folks helpin' with the food makin' needed to know somethin', they asked Clay Brown. Even though Ho Boy talks good English, if you ain't used to listenin' to him, he can be some hard to understand.
I got me kind of a surprise. One of the ladies helpin' Clay Brown was that store keeper's woman from Goodnight and who do you think was fetchin' and carryin' and stuff like that for her? Horace. I seen him and he seen me but you could tell he wasn't too keen on talkin' to me. He didn't act uppity. He acted scared. That was all right. I wasn't too keen on talkin' to him either.
From all that food makin', I seen they needed all them people, even Horace. There were four half beefs on long polls and they had boys about Horace's big turnin' them real slow over the fire. There were three pigs, with their heads still on, roastin'. There were chickens roastin'. There were ladies makin' bread and tortillas and even though I didn't see it, you could smell the makin's for enchiladas cookin' somewheres. They had all kinds of other stuff and they had more bottles of wine and whiskey than I knew there was in the whole world.
You just couldn't keep up with everything. It made me some mad. There was so much to look at that by the time you got to some things you knew that some interestin' stuff had been done and you didn't get to see it bein' done. When I looked back toward the north meadow, I seen that someone had put a altar there and they had all kinds of flowers and pretty green little tree like things all piled up on both sides of that altar. I don't know how they got them to stay like that. I wish I could have seen them do it.
A altar is a table with a fancy cloth on it and a whole lot of things on top of the cloth. There was a cross and a statue of who our mama said was the Blessed Virgin and a little metal box and a big cup with some wine in it and some other stuff I can't remember.
Lookin' back now, I reckon I was just too dumb to know what I was gettin' into with that weddin'. When it come time for the weddin' to start, the priest that Daddy had come from Amarillo went and stood behind the altar. Some folks was playin' fiddles and guitars and Daddy started walkin' from the back, down the middle of all them benches. All them benches was filled with folks by now and there was even some folks who had come late sittin' in their buckboards that they had pulled up behind them last benches.
Daddy was walkin' real slow past all them folks and I couldn't think why. Did I have to walk past all them folks, havin' them lookin' at me, I'd want to run. Pretty soon, Uncle Kevin went to followin' Daddy and that's when it hit me. God amighty. I was gonna have to walk past all them folks and I knew I couldn't run. Aunt Lydia had been tellin' me and Paco how we was supposed to walk and it wasn't gonna be no fast walkin' either. It was gonna be slow walkin' like Daddy and Uncle Kevin was walkin'. As much as I wanted to, I knew I couldn't run. I just had to walk real slow and let all them folks stare at me. I thought I was gonna do a Nate. I didn't, thank God.
Paco was walkin' right in front of me and he was lovin' every minute of it. He looked real good and I reckon I did too. With all them folks lookin' at me, it come to me why my mama took so much time buyin' our clothes. I seen some sense in it now and I was lovin' her for takin' the time to see that me and Paco looked good.
I just about got to that altar, right up there where all our Aunts and cousins and all the rest of the Bent-Y folks was sittin' when I seen a lady lookin' at me all smiles. She was sittin' on the end of the same bench with Uncle Sean's family but she wasn't no Flynn. I didn't know her but it seemed like I should. She was real pretty and she was dressed all fancy, but fancy dressin' wasn't nothin' that day. Everywhere you looked you seen fancy dressed ladies.
But it wasn't her fancy that took me. I was havin' a feelin' some like love and I knew it wasn't for my mama and daddy. This feelin' was some love and some scare and some mad. It questioned me. I ain't had that feelin' since Emma... Emma! God in Heaven, that was Emma. I about cried but I kept on walkin'. When I got up beside Daddy and them I didn't look back. I didn't want to cry in front of all them people.
I knew I was gonna have to turn around when them ladies started comin' up that middle. Aunt Lydia said I had to. I done it but I seen to it that I didn't look at Emma. I was lookin' at Susie, all dressed up fancy in a dress made from some of that cloth Mama bought at Feldman's. Next come Katy, wearin' the same kind of dress. Lord, they looked pretty. I didn't know Susie that good and the way Katy done you, you mostly didn't think pretty when you thought on them girl cousins but lookin' at them now, you seen they was real pretty.
Next come Juan's mama. Senora Maria and Mama got to be real good friends and Mama picked her for her matron of honor. I didn't know what no matron of honor was good for but if my mama needed one, you can just know it was important.
The next thing that happened almost made me jump out of them shiny black boots. Them fiddles and guitars started playin' real loud. Everybody stood up and looked back toward that tent they put up back there so Mama and Katy and them could have a place to change into them fancy dresses. Virgil's mama and Lu Bronson come out of that tent. They was in there to help them ladies with them fancy dresses. They held back the flaps and out stepped my mama. It about took your breath away. She was wearin' a dress made from that white, shiny cloth she bought at Feldman's. What you say about that? I ain't sure what beautiful is but I think that's it.
She walked real slow down that middle. My daddy was smilin' and so was Paco but he had water runnin' down his face too. I wish he wouldn't do that. Them Emma feelin's, seein' my daddy so happy, seein' my mama lookin' so beautiful and happy and seein' my brother cryin' was just about too much for me. I could feel it. If I went to cryin', it wouldn't just be no water runnin' down your face. It would be boo-hooin' and makin' a damn fool of myself. Lord, I didn't want that to happen.
It didn't. When Mama got so far up that middle, you could see Spike and Jorge hangin' on to that long part of her dress that was behind her. They was supposed to keep it out of the dirt but they wasn't doin' a very good job. They couldn't keep their walkin' with Mama's. They was either too close to her or they was about pullin' her over backwards by trailin' too far behind. I reckon they couldn't help it though. This was one timed Jorge showed you what he was thinkin'. Both him and Spike looked so scared I thought they was gonna do a Nate right there. I almost laughed. I didn't though. Hell, I almost done one myself. At least I didn't cry.
When Mama got up to that altar we all went to lookin' at that priest. I have got to know Spanish pretty good and I'm fair at Indian talk and, of course, I do white man's talk real good but the talk that priest was usin' I never heard of before. Some of the words sounded some like Spanish but they wasn't givin' me no sense. Me and Paco was told what we was supposed to do so I reckon it didn't make no difference to us what he was sayin'. We knew he wasn't tellin' us nothin' to do so we just stood there actin' like we was interested in what was goin' on like Mama and Aunt Lydia told us to. I wasn't really payin' attention though. I was just thinkin', "After all this mess is over, she's really gonna be my mama." Thinkin' that, I had to fight that wantin' to cry again'.
When that priest got tired of usin' them funny words, he went to talkin' in English and Spanish. Like I said, I wasn't really payin' attention so I don't remember much of what he said. I do remember him sayin' "I now pronounce you man and wife", and Lord in Heaven, there went the kissin' again. I reckon that's what folks do at weddin's. You remember they done it at Clay and Lu's weddin' and now they was doin' it at our weddin'. I reckon that kind of carryin' on in front of folks is fine for old people like Daddy and Mama but havin' to watch them do it was some embarrassin'. I ain't sure why. I like kissin' and I reckon most folks do. It just don't seem in front of all them people was the place to do it. I reckon it didn't bother nobody else though. Everybody went to clappin'.
I turned around and I even seen Danny and Spud clappin'. It made me some mad. I wouldn't clap if their mama and daddy was embarrassing them in front of the whole damn state of Texas.
When the clappin' was done, Mama and Daddy and Uncle Kevin and Senora Maria knelt down and that priest went to talkin' in them funny words again. He took a cracker out of that little metal box and held it over his head and said a lot more of them funny words. He took a bite of that cracker and then he done the same thing with that big cup of wine.
He done good with that wine. He held it up there and didn't spill none at all. He had that big cupful of wine but he just took a little sip.
The next thing that happened seemed dumb to me. We had all that food ready for eatin' when this mess was done, more food than I ever seen in one place before and I knew there was enough for fillin' all these folks but that priest must not have seen it. You'd think he'd know it was there from the smell of it but it looked like he figured folks was gonna go hungry. He started givin' folks crackers to eat. He give them first to Mama and Daddy and then to Uncle Kevin and Senora Maria.
After them kneelin' folks got their crackers, folks started comin' up from them benches. Not too many folks I knew came up. Senor Pablo came and Manual came and Uncle Brian, Uncle Sean and Aunt Bridget came but none of the rest of the Bent-Y folks came. I reckon they knew about all that food. I was surprised that Senor Pablo and Manual didn't.
I didn't know hardly none of the rest of the folks that come. I was surprised that Spike didn't come. All that food or not, that boy was just crazy for crackers. That priest give a cracker to Susie but he didn't give none to Katy or me or Paco but that didn't bother me none. I ain't crazy about crackers anyway.
I asked my mama about that later. She said you got to be a certain kind of Christian or that priest wouldn't give you no cracker.
Now, I don't think on Christians like I used to. I come to know a whole lot of them that is real good folks. Me and Paco go with Danny to his mama's church some now. Daddy says if we like goin', go ahead but we got to remember that sittin' in church ain't what bein' a Christian is about.
We don't go much but I like it some. I could do without Brother Freeman talkin' so much but I like the singin'. Me and Paco was even in the Christmas Program last winter. That's when they have a play about Jesus bein' born and everybody dresses up like them real old-timy people. From how them folks in Danny's mama's church think, I reckon folks just wore bathrobes in them days.
Beside the play, younguns say poems about Jesus bein' born and there's a lot of singing. Paco sung one song by hisself. He's loved singin' ever since he learned he could do it good that time we went back to Goodnight for my old mama's funeral. They call what he done a solo. I know that word means alone but it seems funny to have a word like that for Paco's singin'. His singin' ain't low. It's real high - and pretty.
I sing some good, I reckon. Aunt Lydia was tryin' to get me to sing with him but I didn't want all them people lookin' at me. Anyway, if I'd a done it, they'd a called it a duet. That sounds like a word for somethin' a girl would do. Don't it?
There I go down that river again. I was gonna tell you that I don't think bad on Christians no more but I can't think out some of the things they do. Brother Freeman is always sayin' how God loves everybody and is wantin' to bring all the sheep into the fold and how they got folks goin' to Africa lookin' for lost sheep. I reckon he means that the church is the fold and them lost sheep is folks that ain't Christians. If them Christians think that way, how come they're always thinkin' up ways to keep some folks out?
I reckon it didn't make no difference what kind of Christian you was when it come to that wine. That priest was selfish with his wine. He didn't give none to nobody.
When the cracker-eatin' was done, Mama and Daddy went flyin' back down that middle, them fiddles and guitars playin' some real fast music. Me and Paco was supposed to hold out our arms for Susie and Katy. We done it but it didn't make no sense to me. Hell, Katy had been livin' on the Bent-Y all her life. She knew the way across the north meadow. I don't reckon Susie needed no help neither. How the hell can you get lost in the middle of a open meadow? But, we done like we was told and finally, that weddin' was over. Paco and me started runnin' for the house. We was ready to get out of these fancy clothes that made you feel like you was in a itchy jail. I was wantin' to get into some of them britches that didn't make your belly feel like it was tryin' to be someplace it wasn't supposed to be. Anyway, it was almost noon and these gray suits was too damn hot.
We was almost to the door when Mama called to us. "You boys come on back here. We have photographs to take before you change."
Hot as we was, that made us some excited. I never had no photograph took before. Neither did Paco. It sounded like fun.
Well, I got to tell you, it ain't no fun. You got to stand still so long it seems like that picture man thinks you're a statue or somethin'. I got real mad at him but I tried not to show it. This picture takin' seemed important to my mama. But that damn picture man was always fussin' at Paco and me and Jorge and Spike but he wasn't in no itchy suit. I'd like to see him stand still if he was.
After while Paco whispered to me, "Does that bastard know what the hell he's doin'?"
From that, I knew he was as mad about this photograph takin' as I was.
The thing was, he had this big box on three legs and he kept puttin' his head under a black cloth like he was tryin' to hide from us. When he was done tryin' to hide, he put gun powder in a long trough-like thing with a handle on the bottom of it. He held the trough over his head and pulled a black piece of wood out of that box and said, "Everybody stand real still."
I don't think he knew how to say anything else. That was the part where all the fussin' at me and Paco and Spike and Jorge come in. When he got tired of fussin' at us he did somethin' to make that gun powder go off and it made a real bright light. He put that piece of black wood back in that box and then he done the whole thing over again. Seemed to me and Paco, if he knew what he was doin', he wouldn't have made so many mistakes and one time would have done it.
I reckon a fella could stand that two or three times but he just kept doin' it wrong. I reckon we went through his hidin' and fussin' about ten or twelve times before he got one right. I was about to tell him that if he didn't know what the hell he was doin', let somebody who does take the damn picture. I couldn't think why my daddy was puttin' up with it. He can be real patient when he thinks folks are tryin' but he ain't one for puttin' up with dumb things. When he figured folks wasn't tryin' or wasn't payin' attention, he was quick to tell them about it.
But Daddy didn't say nothin' to that picture man. In fact, he seemed to like what was goin' on. Since he was all the time goin' to Santa Fe, it seems like me and Paco just don't know that man at all no more. I reckon I said that before, but - we don't.
I reckon he still loves us the same and he found us a mama who we love real good but he just ain't the same Seamus Flynn. He's still big and he's still tough but he seems softer somehow. I ain't seen him Irish since Mama came on the place.
I reckon there ain't nothin' wrong with that. Me and Paco just ain't used to it yet.
When the picture takin' was finally done, Paco and me still couldn't go and change and get to playin'. We all had to stand in a line and folks come by and was shakin' Daddy's hand and kissin' on Mama and some of them even was tryin' to kiss on Paco and me. Paco let them but the only one I let kiss me was Emma. Course you couldn't keep Grandma Walton from kissin' you if you had a army standin' around you but I was gettin' used to it and even comin' to like it some. Emma and me didn't talk much in that line because she didn't want to hold up the other folks. She said she'd see me later and we'd talk then. She had two younguns with her that you seen was her brother and sister but they looked some like Paco when I first come to know him. They wasn't Mexican or nothin' like that but they was all skinny and had almost that dark room look in their eyes.
I reckon me and Paco was feelin' some important standin' there with our mama and daddy and all them people howdyin' us and makin' over us. We seen a lot of them other herd younguns and me and Paco was real glad to see them Colburn twins. They tried to kiss us but not even Paco would let them do it in that line. Behind the barn was one thing. That line, in front of all them folks, was somethin' else again.
I reckon me and Paco was doin' fine about not lettin' on but we was both wantin' to get the hell out of them itchy clothes. You can't keep nothin' from your mama. I reckon she seen what we was thinkin'. She said she reckoned that two boys was standin' long enough. It was time for playin' with our friends but we had to change out of them fancy clothes first.
Ain't she somethin'? She never had two boys our big before and already she knows what boys need. It didn't take us long to get on out of there.
It seemed like we had almost as big a audience for our clothes changin' as was watchin' the weddin'. Them Feldmans and Qua and some of them other herd boys was all so anxious to play, they come right up to our room while we was gettin' into some britches that was good for somethin' besides makin' you itch.
By the time we got back outside, folks were startin' to head for those eatin' tables. From what my belly was tellin' me, that was a real good idea.
Since I've been livin' with Daddy, I've been doin' real good eatin' but I don't reckon anybody in the whole world ever did any eating like we did that day. I already told about those half beefs. Now they had folks cuttin' you off a slice and they'd put extra sauce on it and they'd give you some bread and there were potatoes and greens and all kinds of other things that I'd never seen before but that tasted very good.
Ho Boy was a boss cook the same as Clay Brown. Clay was mostly in charge of the meat cookin' and Ho Boy was in charge of the rest. He was some like Aunt Lydia. He was bossin' but he was doin' it in a funnin' way and even Ho Chow, who has gotten to the place where he didn't like his brother tellin' him what to do, looked like he was havin' a good time and all them cooks was workin' hard but they was laughin' and funnin' on each other and you know Ho Boy. If somebody told him they liked his cookin', you saw one proud Chinaman. They have a lot of parts to weddin's that I don't see any sense to but when you get to this part, I reckon weddings aren't so bad.
Have you been noticin' how I've been tryin' to use my best proper talk and not do any cussin'? Daddy didn't tell me to but it come to me that Paco and even Danny were doin' the same thing. It seems like when you have all those fancy folks around, that proper talk comes easier. It seems like you don't have to think on it; it just comes out of your mouth. Just the same, I was some fussed. You don't know who you're talkin' to. What if you were talkin' to a Governor or one of those other senators, or somebody like that and you let out a "ain't" or a" damn" or, Lord help us, a "shit." I reckon you'd want to die and I know Mama doesn't want anyone dyin' on her weddin' day. So, even though proper talk seemed some easier with fancy folks around, it still gave you a worry.
I could feel some better when we were finished eatin'. Now, let me tell you, that took a while. I think I ate some of everything they had and, with all that stuff, you put in a good hour's work before you got the job done. Still, after I couldn't get another crumb in me, I was some mad. There was still about as much left as folks ate, it looked like. I knew on the Bent-Y I'd never go without but you don't get that much good tastin', fancy eatin' every day. I asked the name of some of those new things to me. I was gonna see to it that Ho Chow made them from time to time.
All of us boys wanted to get to playin' but all that eatin' seemed like it took the play out of us. Those other boys ate as much as I did, everybody but Richie and Eddie Feldman. They didn't eat any of that roast pig. I reckon seein' that pig, lookin' alive, with that apple in his mouth made them some sick. They wouldn't touch any of it. We told them that it was real good and just not to look at that pig's face and they wouldn't think about it. It didn't make any difference. They wouldn't eat any of it. They ate about everything else though. But after all that eatin' we needed to do some sittin' before we could do our playin'.
It was while we was gettin' over all that eatin' and us boys was just by ourselves and you didn't have to think on proper talk that Emma and them two peaked lookin' younguns come over to me. "Do you have time to talk now, Sammy Boy?"
There wasn't nobody called me 'Sammy Boy' since she done it in Goodnight, and I wasn't sure how to take it. I knew them other boys heard it and I knew I'd get funned for it but I also knew it was her way of showin' that she liked me. I didn't say nothin'. I told those boys to get on somewheres else, that I had some private business. I reckon that wasn't the best manners but they didn't seem to take a mad from it and they all, even Paco, started to leave. I didn't know was this gonna be hard rememberin' and I wanted Paco with me. I called him back.
First off, Emma told me that within days after I got my daddy, he sent Manuel to Goodnight with money for her to buy a ticket to San Francisco and a note tellin' her how to find Uncle Sean. It was my daddy's way of thankin' her for doin' me good. Emma said she did me good because she took to me and not for no money. She took the money but after Uncle Sean found her a good job in one of the Flynn Banks, she paid it all back. She said kindness was somethin' you give, not somethin' you sell. She said that Daddy told her in a letter that he understood her thinkin' and that he'd accept the money back but that it would go into the Samuel Martin Flynn Scholarship fund for helpin' orphan younguns get a college education. She said she done real good in San Francisco and that Uncle Sean and Aunt Bridget was real good to her, even knowin' what she did in Goodnight.
She said she'd been able to save a lot of money and could afford to take off some work when Aunt Bridget told her about Daddy gettin' married and asked her to come along.
I asked, "Where have you been all this time? Uncle Sean and them have been here two weeks."
"I went back to Austin to visit my family. Things haven't changed much there, Sammy. That's why I brought Ira and Reba with me. They're young enough that I think I can help them from dyin' inside like the rest of my family. Ira's eleven and Reba's nine. The others, I'm afraid, have already got their thinkin' set and, even though I offered, none of the rest of them wanted to come. It makes me want to cry, Sammy boy. I just don't know what puts the fight in folks like you and me and not in others."
"You want to see fight, you look at my brother, Paco, here. Hell, he was worse lookin' than them two pasty lookin' younguns you got with you and, I'll wager, was done a whole lot worse. When I first found him, he was bare-ass naked, had the malnutrition and was all beat up but he didn't know no quit. You want them younguns to learn fight, you couldn't do better than to let Paco learn them."
Now, I don't know why I called them pasty lookin'. You seen right off that they took it bad. I was gonna try to say somethin' to make them feel better but Paco seen too what I done and he said, "I know you younguns are white but I hope you ain't as dumb as my brother. All he done to you was to hurt your feelin's. When I first got him, he tried to take all the hide off me and burn my eyes out. I love him real good but, and I hope this don't hurt your feelin's, some white folks just ain't too smart. Sam can read real good but he ain't learned yet how to put a bridle on his tongue. He can think good but he can talk faster than he can think and that's why dumb things like that come out of him. Anyway, he wasn't no prize when I first got him either. His favorite place to be was a shit house pit. I reckon you can see why a boy who'd want to be there would say dumb things."
Emma looked surprised. "Is that where you were the day your ma... ah - the day we were all lookin' for you?"
"That's where I was and you don't have to talk around what happened to my mama. Daddy explained my mama to me and we went back to Goodnight and give her a proper funeral. I know my whole mama now, not just the one who was beat down by the whiskey. Them bad happenin's ain't part of me no more. Just some sad rememberin' for what she could have been."
You seen that Reba and Ira still didn't know how to take me and Paco. I think they was over their hurt feelin's but they looked at me like I should have been mad for what Paco was sayin' about me. I looked at Ira. "Don't take on so, Ira. Ain't you ever been funned on? Paco's one for talkin' and mostly he's right but sometimes he's full of shit. I reckon you'll just have to get to know me to know which part of what he said is which. Let's go play.
"Emma, I got all these friends here and I ain't tryin' to do no bad manners on you, but they're gonna be gone before dark and I reckon you'll be stayin' on the Bent-Y somewheres. Uncle Sean ain't goin' back to San Francisco until next week. Where you stayin'?"
"We're stayin' with Mrs. Brunson."
Paco said, "Lord, looks like Lu's runnin' a regular hotel. You seen them Burchjumper younguns yet - or whatever the hell their name is?"
"We saw a girl about Ira's size and some boys some smaller than Reba. We thought Mrs. Brunson looked too young to be their mama. Who are they?
Paco was off runnin' toward them other boys. He hollered back over his shoulder, "Get Lu to tell you. I got me some playin' to do."
He got almost to the house horse barn when he stopped quick, stood there for a minute thinkin' and them came runnin' back. "I'm sorry Ira, I reckon I been selfish. I reckon you'd like to play too. Come on."
Ira looked at Emma. "Emma, do I have to? I ain't never had me no britches before and I don't want to get them messed up."
Paco said, "Ira, let me tell you how these fancy folks do us bare-ass younguns. Once they start gettin' you britches, there ain't no stoppin' them. Me and Sam got more britches in our room than, I reckon, you ever seen before. We got a whole lot of them up there and if you get them messed up, we got a Chinaman to wash them up. Come on, Ira. You're gonna have to learn to be somethin' beside a bare-assed cracker sometime. You might as well start now. Sam, you go fetch Maureen. She can see that Reba gets to playin'."
Ira didn't fuss none. Folks just trust Paco. He was runnin' with Paco and even before he got to our house, he looked like he was havin' fun. Reba took to Maureen real good and I was off playin' with them boys.
We didn't have time to go to the swimmin' hole so we played hide and seek. The girls was playin' with us too and we was havin' fun. It was almost like when all them other herd younguns was here for school. Only problem was a whole lot of them younguns' mamas forgot to bring them playin' clothes and they was all the time fussin' with their younguns about not gettin' their go-to-meetin' clothes messed up. The Feldmans' mama was smart. She brought playin' clothes but so many of them other mamas was fussin' so much we had to make a rule that you can't hide in them barns or any of them other buildings. We was just hidin' behind trees and buildin's and that rule cut way into the fun. But, what the hell you gonna do when somebody's mama don't want them gettin' dirty? Seems like if you can't get dirty, you ain't playin'.
We was playin' real hard and Ira done pretty good for not knowin' none of them younguns. I felt both sorry and a little mad at him. He was actin' like the rest of us would think he was nobody. I reckon I can understand why he'd think that way but I didn't like him puttin' his thinkin' into my head. I reckon he was worse off than Paco was when we first got him.
Reba was more like Emma. She knew who she was and I reckon, like Emma, it didn't make no difference how she had been livin', she was never poor.
Me and Paco was busy playin' but we didn't forget about our mama. Every so often I'd get the need to just go over and hug her and give her a kiss. Paco done the same. When Daddy seen that, he'd smile real big and get water in his eyes. Then he'd pull us to him, pet our hair and give us a big hug. We hugged back too. You'd think you'd have to half your love when you had both a mama and a daddy but I don't reckon you did. From somewhere you got enough to love them both more than you loved just one. Ain't that somethin'?
About the middle of the afternoon, some folks started for home. If they lived close by, mostly they wanted to be home by dark. We didn't have enough sleepin' places for all them folks who had come from Amarillo and Austin and Dallas and places like that, so most of the rooms in the Flynn Hotel in Amarillo was saved for them. Daddy had a special train waitin' on the sidin' in Groom and all them buckboards started carryin' folks back to that train. I know I been tellin' you I hated weddings but I was some sad when it come to me that it was all over. Some parts of weddings is fine, I reckon. I loved the eatin' and the playin' but the part I loved best was the part where you get a brand new mama.
Mama and Daddy had told us this was gonna happen but it still made me and Paco some mad when it did. They went off somewheres, too. What you say about somethin' like that? You just get a new mama and the first thing she does is go off and leave you. Daddy said it was a honeymoon and that's just what folks do after a weddin'. Honeymoon's a nice soundin' name but I still don't like it none. Hell, they could call it Christmas and I wouldn't like it none.
It was too far for the Indians to go back that night so they was gonna camp on the north meadow. That meant Qua could be with us when we rolled out our bed rolls out by the house horse barn. Ira stayed out there with us too but he kept Paco between him and that Indian. It was Spud who was the most excited, though. He wanted his bedroll right next to Qua. When Spud gets back to San Francisco, there's gonna be some stories told. By that time Qua will have grown from a boy our big to a giant Apache all covered with war paint and with scalps hangin' from his belt. Spud will be tellin' them San Francisco boys how he wasn't scared. He'll be tellin' them he laid down and went to sleep right beside him. Spud's a boy. He's got them brags in him.